15
On the fourteenth day of Adar the Jews of Susa got together again and killed three hundred more people in the city. But they did no looting.
16
The Jews in the provinces also organized and defended themselves. They rid themselves of their enemies by killing 15,000 people on the thirteenth day of Adar, but they did no looting.
17
On the next day, the fourteenth, there was no more killing, and the Jews made it a joyful holiday of rest and feasting.
18
The Jews of Susa, however, made the fifteenth a holiday, since they had slaughtered their enemies on the thirteenth and fourteenth and did not stop until the fifteenth.
19
This is why Jews who live in small towns observe the fourteenth day of the month of Adar as a holiday, a time of giving gifts of food to one another, while the Jews in the large cities celebrate the holiday in the same way on the fifteenth.
Scripture taken from the Good News Translation - Second Edition, Copyright 1992 by American Bible Society. Used by Permission.